The 23-year-old was calm and composed to notch a 21-12, 21-14 victory over world No 9 Loh, who became the first Singaporean to lift the World Championship title in 2021.

Tze Yong is set to face world No 35 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand, who beat Maldves’ Hussein Zayan Shaheed 21-3, 21-5, for a spot in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

“My performance today was good, but there is still room for improvement. I will have to discuss this with coach (Hendrawan). Tomorrow’s match will be a 50-50 affair because Kantaphon is a more senior competitor and I haven’t played him before,” he said.

“Sometimes I beat the top players but I have trouble maintaining that consistency. I hope to overcome that.”

Meanwhile, top women’s pair Pearly Tan and M Thinaah marked their Asian Games debut with an easy 21-12, 21-16 victory over Singapore’s Jin Yu Jia and Crystal Wong to advance to the round of 16.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallists will next play Thailand’s world No 10 duo Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Tharawinda Prajongjai, who defeated Pakistan’s Mahoor Shahzad and Ghazala Siddique 21-5, 21-7.

Another doubles pair, Valeree Sio and Go Pei Kee, saw their Asian Games campaign come to an end after losing 21-9, 21-13 to world No 5 Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama of Japan.